Tricks to Teach Your Child to Read By Adrian Gentilcore
Here is a simple little trick for parents to help you teach your child to read in a fun and painless way. Surprisingly this will even work with very young children and will help get them interested enough to sit still for a story. All you need to do is to make sure that the print is large enough for them to see the letters very clearly - otherwise you can choose any book that you think would appeal to them.
When you sit down to read your story, determine ahead of time several words you want your child to "read". Names of characters or other words that are repeated frequently in the story work best. It doesn't matter if it is a short word or a long one, in fact a longer word is easier to recognize because it is a more unique pattern. The first time you come to the designated word in the story, point to it and say the word clearly. Then each time you come to that word, simply pause, point to the word and look at your child expectantly. You may have to prompt them a couple of times, but they'll catch on very quickly and they'll learn to recognize "their" words. At the end of the story, praise them and give them a big hug, then put the book away.
The next day, they will likely BEG to read the same book. Let them read the same words and add two or three new ones. By the time they get tired of the book, they will have learned at least 8 to 10 new words and will be able to recognize them in other books as well. Keep this up and before you know it, your child will be reading confidently and easily.
How well does this work? My youngest son was three and a half when I started doing this with him along with some other techniques. By the time he was four he could recognize about 100 words and by the time he was halfway through Kindergarten, he was reading whole books easily and confidently. He is now in first grade and reads about one step above grade level.
Here is another trick I used to get my older son to enjoy reading. When he was 7 or 8, Matt could read quite well, but he wasn't particularly interested in books. So I went to the library one day and picked out a few books I thought he would enjoy (I think they were R.L. Stein's Goosebumps books). Then I casually dumped them next to him in the backseat of the car and said the magic words "Don't touch those, they're your brother's". Problem solved!
I think he ended up reading nearly every Goosebumps book the library had on the shelves and now that he is in High School, he consistently scores in the top 3 to 5 percent in the nation on his reading speed and comprehension.
